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[–] 10 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Huh, I just looked it up and apparently (according to CNET) 44% of data centers use closed loop. That's still not most, but it is more than I expected.

Tbh, I still think water use is a red herring. The electricity use absolutely bonkers.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    The water use is a distraction. These companies pumped so much money into grabbing onto the counter narrative and controlling it. There went with “the water use! AI is so bad it needs to be regulated (away from the plebs)!” Meanwhile they are sucking up the world’s compute and hoarding AI for themselves which is the real and actual problem.

    Go look for yourself. They are running it out of berkley where that lesswrong dude has a big campus thing.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago*

    I totally agree that water use is a distraction. For sure it’s a concern but mandating closed loop/recycling should solve that reasonably and not be blocking.

    Similar with noise pollution. Apparently it’s there more that I’d expect but it seems simplest just to put noise limits

    Other ways datacenter sprawl externalizes their cost to everyone else are harder to address - which ought to be blocked. We need to be more concerned with air pollution, electricity prices, and building ever more “dead mall” blight.

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